Wrong Side Of Heaven, the first full-length from the truly wonderful Baltimore hardcore band End It, will arrive next week. The album rollout has been an absolute blast. The band teamed up with director Noah Haycock to make some fun, ridiculous videos for the early singles "Pale Horse," "Life Sublime," and "Optical Delusions." Now, they've got one more video for one more song, and both of them are goofy in all the best ways.
The latest End It single is a cover of "Do You Love Me?," a song that Maximum Penalty released in 1996. Maximum Penalty were a New York hardcore band, but "Do You Love Me?" isn't really a hardcore song. Instead, it's a big, soulful, spirited blues-rock explosion. The way End It play the song, it might as well be Eddie Money or the J. Geils Band or something. This is a good thing. The song gives End It frontman Akil Godsey a chance to show he can really sing, and the band brings enormous bounce to the track. I can't wait to see how this one goes off live.
Once again, End It and director Noah Haycock have a great time with their "Do You Love Me?" video. For this one, End It perform at an old-timey Hairspray-esque black-and-white dance-party show, and they whip the crowd into a frenzy. Paris Roberts, formerly of Truth Cult and currently of No Idols, plays the TV host, and it's hard to miss Trapped Under Ice/Angel Du$t leader Justice Tripp as one of the unruly crowd members. Check out the End It video and the original Maximum Penalty track below.
Wrong Side Of Heaven is out 8/29 on Flatspot. Also! End It are playing a record release show 10/26 at the Baltimore Soundstage, and they got motherfucking Torn Apart to reunite! That name might mean nothing to you, but back when I was in high school one million years ago, Torn Apart were basically the only straight-up hardcore band in town. (Bridgewater played some of those same shows; I shouldn't forget them. Also, Next Step Up were around, but I didn't know anything about them.) It'll be Torn Apart's first show in 20 years. I think that's so cool.
